elephantiasis

What if you could treat a poor person in Africa to cure or prevent seven horrible afflictions – river blindness, hookworm, elephantiasis, trachoma, snail fever and two other parasitic worm diseases – for only 50 cents?

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced, together with more than a dozen drug makers and others, a new initiative aimed at fighting a select group of mostly developing world ailments called “neglected tropical diseases” such as river blindness, parasitic elephantiasis and others. These diseases affect an estimated 1.4…

This scientific finding got a little bit of media attention, but deserves more: A cheap drug, called Ivermectin (or brand name Mectizan), that Merck originally made for dogs may become a useful new weapon against one of the world’s biggest killers, malaria. It was discovered many years ago that this…

Flickr, poppalina Millions of bare feet prove we still aren’t reaching the very poorest of the poor. The international community is doing a lot to help the world’s poor — spending billions of dollars (not enough, but still billions) to combat AIDS, TB and malaria, doing research, figuring out clever…

Friends of Humanosphere

About

Humanosphere

Seattle is the epicenter of a global effort to beat back poverty and illness in the poorest corners of the world. We'd like Humanosphere to be your go-to source for news, conversation and analysis about this effort as it unfolds. Your host is Tom Paulson, a reporter with decades of experience covering science, medicine and global health in the US and beyond.